A sale of the 1m square foot office complex on the outskirts of Edinburgh would be the clearest example yet of the new management’s break with the past.
Gogarburn was Sir Fred Goodwin’s pet project as chief executive of the bank, which is now 84pc-owned by the state after being bailed out with £53.5bn of taxpayer money. The executive wing became known as “Fred’s folly” and his involvement is said to have stretched right down to choosing the wallpaper.

The site, set in 100 acres of woodland on the site of a former psychiatric institution, cost £350m to build and was opened in 2005.
Although a strategic review of the group’s £4bn own-premises portfolio has begun, Stephen Hester, the new chief executive, has stressed there is no question of moving the 3,200 staff.

However, insiders said a sale and leaseback could be a more efficient use of the bank’s resources. One said: “Stephen Hester and the new finance director have every area of cost under challenge and review. There are lots of feasibility studies on every aspect of the operation. This sounds like one of them. Like all these things, some will fly, some won’t.”
RBS has a further £4bn of investment properties, currently rented out, that could also be put up for disposal. Should it be sold, Gogarburn alone would be expected to raise more than £500m.

Property experts said Gogarburn would make an attractive acquisition for a large property group, such as British Land or Land Securities, due to its unique attributes. Mr Hester is a former chief executive of British Land.
“Goodwin may have made some bad decisions, but Gogarburn was not one of them,” a source said. “If RBS ever did decide to leave, a developer could easily arrange the premises for a number of different companies.”
The complex is famous for the “street”, a glass-ceilinged concourse lined with shops and restaurants. There is also an on-site nursery and a shuttle bus service direct to Edinburgh centre.

Gogarburn is the jewel in RBS’s property crown but the bank is also reviewing its London properties. Some 20,000 staff are spread across 18 sites in London and teams are assessing whether they should be consolidated.
RBS is not averse to sale and leasebacks. Two years ago it raised £800m in property sales, including its landmark Coutts building. HSBC recently sold its Canary Wharf headquarters in a £773m sale and leaseback transaction.
A decision is not thought to be imminent as the strategic review is in its early stages.

The bank is in the process of selling off assets, including its RBS Sempra commodity trading joint venture. An outline £2.5bn deal had been agreed with JP Morgan but it has been jeopardised by US plans to ban banks from conducting proprietary trading.
RBS is now negotiating to sell JP Morgan just the international operation, which accounts for roughly half the business. Its partner, Sempra Energy, may attempt a buy-out of the rest. As a trading firm, Sempra Energy is exempt from the planned US rule.

Royal Bank of Scotland, which is 84 per cent owned by the Government, may be on the hook for almost $1 billion to the US over the next decade under a stringent new levy announced by the Obama Administration yesterday. Barclays could face a total bill of about $5.6 billion over ten years, while HSBC may have to hand over $3.8 billion, Joseph Dickerson, an analyst at Execution, calculated as the details of the US levy emerged.

The three UK lenders were scrabbling to clarify their exposure to the tax, proposed by President Obama to claw back billions of dollars from banks that have been saved from collapse by state support. If approved by Congress, the new tax — which the White House called a “financial crisis responsibility fee” — would force about 50 banks, insurance companies and large broker-dealers collectively to pay the US Government about $90 billion over ten years. About 35 would be US companies and 10 to 15 US subsidiaries of foreign groups.

Barclays and HSBC are thought to be among the biggest foreign banks to be caught by the tax. RBS’s exposure is smaller than it would have been because it has in recent months reduced its US assets. The UK banks are caught despite not participating in the Troubled Asset Relief Programme because they benefited from systemic support from the US Government.

The tax is set to be on banks’ US assets, less their capital and deposits. The rate, at 0.15 per cent, will effectively be on their wholesale funded business. Mr Dickerson said that along with the bonus tax in the UK, “this is clearly going to be a cost of doing business in the Western world”.

The White House plans to lobby Britain and other G20 nations to introduce their own version of the tax. However, the Treasury said last night that such a tax would not be necessary in Britain, where the Government expected eventually to recover all of the bailout funding provided to banks at the height of the crisis.

Mr Obama timed the announcement of the levy to coincide with the start of the bank reporting season when bonuses are announced.

The President said that he was determined to recover “every dime” the American people were owed. “We want our money back and we are going to get it. My determination to achieve this goal is only heightened when I see reports of massive profits and obscene bonuses at the very firms who owe their continued existence to the American people.”Most of the biggest banks refused to comment.

The new tax, which will become payable on June 30, will apply to companies with more than $50 billion in assets, whether or not they received bailout money. Sixty per cent of the money is expected to come from the ten largest institutions. These are likely to include Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Bank of America and GE Capital. AIG, the insurer, would be liable for the tax but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the housing financiers, and carmakers such as General Motors and Chrysler, all of which were funded under TARP, would be exempt.

It was suspected that in 2009, the Arabian Travel Market held at the Dubai World International Convention and Exhibition Center in the U.A.E. would suffer a severe blow following the pangs of the global recession, however, the turnout was not only a positive surprise, it also reflected the true players in the game of travel and tourism in the region.

Featuring over 2,000 exhibitors from 69 countries, ATM covered the Middle East and North Africa, Europe, Asia, South-East Asia and Australasia, the Americas and Africa.

This year also saw ATM celebrating its 16th anniversary. Though there were some changes, what remained was a positive vibe and the business outlook remained strong.

Due to the global economic meltdown, it was expected that there would be a softening of all businesses including travel, however the Arabian Travel 2009 post-market analysis actually found a substantial increase in attendance compared to 2008.

With 15,026 visitors, there was a 6.5 per cent rise in attendance, a 1.9 per cent increase in the Buyers Club as well as 5.14 per cent increase in travel trade professionals.

The purpose of these shows is for travel product and service providers from around the world to see what each other has to offer and in hope of scooping some serious business on their behalf.

The event encourages promotion of inbound and outbound tourism products within the Middle East and to a wide-diversity of decision executers around the world.

The primary organizers of ATM-Reed Travel Exhibitions demonstrated faith in the show’s delightful energy, which resembled not only the industry itself, but also the attitudes of those working within it.

Mark Walsh, Reed’s Group Exhibition Director stated: “The feeling on the show floor is most certainly one of optimism, underlining a sense of belief which characterizes the Middle East’s tourism as a whole. The region is still the world’s fastest growing market and has the infrastructure, vision and determination to maintain this growth”. In order to maintain this growth however, what was being promoted through comprehensive marketing campaigns was enhanced awareness of the current existing markets as opposed to entering new ones. This way the market does not have so much of a gambling feel to it”.

The exhibition also sought to extend its seminar program to heighten discussions in order to alter the cold trading conditions situation within the economic climate. What they hosted was 16 free-to-attend sessions, hosting over 25 industry leaders speaking during the first three days of the show. This was to encourage all in attendance to discuss what was presented in the forums and in hope that it would instigate further confidence within the industry.

The highlighted topics held at the seminar addressed issues such as maximizing business advantages in the expanding Middle East cruise lining industry, further invested interest in getaways such as luxury spas and the outlook upon the Gulf’s MICE industry and aviation.

Regarding the tourism itself within the U.A.E., there were speculations as to what statistics and comments would be released. Some encouraging words came from His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman, Dubai Airports, and Chairman and Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group said: “Travel and tourism demand in the UAE and the region remains strong. In fact, the Middle East is the only region which has seen an increase in air passenger traffic in March, when every other region saw a drop. Many of the countries in this region have invested massive resources to boost their travel and tourism infrastructure”.

“Increasingly, international hospitality and travel brands are looking to this region as the ‘bright spot’ in the global economic downturn, and are investing here. I am confident that Dubai, the UAE, and the region as a whole, is well placed to weather the current challenges and come out even stronger,” HH Sheikh Ahmed added.

Al Diar Siji is a five-star business class hotel. It is situated in the heart of its city and enjoys an ideal location in central Fujairah, a city in the northern Emirates. The general manager said that though there had been a decline in the arrivals from Europe, localized tourism had risen.

He said the hotel itself caters more for business travelers, and he mentioned the facility’s spectacular conferencing outlay as well as a high standard of other services, which have enhanced the hotel’s capabilities for the market segment.

This also reflected on what the exhibitors were echoing throughout the show, that catering ultimately for the market that is already available to a business is going to encourage it to fare much better than if attempting to market themselves aimlessly at new clientele.

Overall, the success of the Arabian Travel Market did not only prove as business expanding to some, it enabled everybody who attended to see that though the world is suffering in the slums of the financial crisis, the travel and tourism industry is extremely capable of prevailing and making serious revenue. The underlying factor that is set to exacerbate this hope is by businesses putting their logic and marketing skills into practical use and therefore they will benefit. When it comes to service and tactic, the message was obvious. Better service, better deals for the clients and travelling will then become not only easier to access, but if the experience they get is unforgettable, then they would be willing return and invest their holiday expenditure in these primary locations.

The event gives you the opportunity to for you to ideally unlock your business potential within the Middle East and pan Arab Region, which therefore teaches you how to:

Do business with the largest audience of travel meet the most qualified buyers face to face, build new ideas for the international face, increase your company Arabian Travel Market is more than just an exhibition. It also entails a marketing and PR campaign.

The Arabian Travel Market is held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, and under the auspices of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Government of Dubai.

For further information about participating at the trade show in 2010, you can visit the website www.arabiantravelmarket.com